Editor-in-Brief: Memory

This is the last issue of Five out of Ten. Naturally there’s a sadness that we’ve reached the end of the line, but when I look back at the twenty issues of awesome magazine goodness, I feel nothing but pride. I also remember the late nights, audacious design challenges, and infuriating InDesign bugs. So yeah, mostly pride.

We leave you with ten features that I think exemplify what we’ve championed over the past five years: sharp criticism, deep journalism, thought-provoking personal experience, and the fact that great writing should pay. So why leave now? The elephant in the room is that great writing should pay, but persuading people to pay for writing is hard — whether you’re an independent zine or the New York Times. But if we were in this for the money, we’d have quit years ago.

The truth is that our lives have changed a lot in five years, and now planning weddings takes precedence over planning magazines. We’ve accomplished what we set out to achieve with Five out of Ten: made some cool stuff, built up friendships, published and paid some amazing writers. We had fun, and we hope you had fun too. I also hope there’s someone reading this who feels inspired to start their own magazine, or video blog, or whatever they feel hopelessly compelled to do in the marrow of their bones. Know that the only limits are your imagination, your resolve, and PayPal’s rules concerning what constitutes a business account. We’re rooting for you!

To all of our contributors, editors, customers, supporters and enablers: on behalf of the whole team, thank you for helping us share some amazing stories.